Stolen Ham Gear

I am sorry you joined this club,
me too.
EMT- equipment, ids, and my radio gear about 3000.00
and counting.

 

Sorry for your loss. Mine happened here in Southwest FL
back in March 92. The only recovery was the insurance money came through enough for me to get another used HF rig and replace the 2m, 220 and 440 mobiles, but the stereo, amplifier, eq and several cds, which were still plenty expensive back then. Then there was the window on the right front passenger side. The only justice was the hotel giving me a check for my deductable. I never have installed rigs in my car like I had then, never will again. Too bad, but it really clouds your happiness. But life goes on. You will recover and keep right on going, do not let scum criminals ruin everything for you. 73! Joe

 

Wow,

I am VERY SORRY for your incident.  The biggest thing that comes to mind is the feeling of being violated.  Not to mention the obvious...the theft of thousands of $$$ worth of radios and equipment.  Sad to say, but sometimes this is the price of serving your community.  Needless to say, and I say this having read other comments from other HAMs, we'll be keeping a 3rd eye out for your equipment.  Hopefully it'll be located.  

I wish you the best outcome from this unfortunate incident.

Cory-
WI9EMS

 

I am sorry to hear your loss & others as well. I am unfortunate myself when I was in the Cb Radio Scene back in the mid 2000 range I had a so called friend that wanted to use my Galaxy 99v for a base station so I did and next thing I know it he ended up moving away and stealing it from me and the local police never did anything about it. One of the cops popped up with this remark...''They Have Better Things To Do''

 

wow that sucks! Hopefully you will get all your equipments back , can't you park the truck in the garage? Yea you should install a CCTV camera that is aiming at the truck. What im doing is once I get my yaesu radio is I will only keep it in the car when I need it and when I don't use it and keep it inside the house, even though the neighborhood I live in is pretty safe.. you never know what will happen and got to always be prepared.. and yea hehe if a robber try to mess with my parents car or the car that im going to drive... I will take my elec paintball gun put it on full auto... and well.. you know the rest of the story , I will also keep an eye out for the serial # and let you know if I see any ham on sale with those #. Good luck and keep us updated 73

 

Keep serial numbers of all of your gear.

In case of theft, closely watch eBay and the local pawn shops for those numbers to turn up.

A few of "America's Dumbest" have been caught using this very method...

 

Good thread. Sorry to hear about your stolen gear. I've started to consider getting some radio insurance as I am low income and have worked very hard and paid cash for every radio I have, no CC lifestyle for me, and I'd be crushed if my rigs got stolen.

I'm going to go home tonight and record model/serial and identifying information on all my equipment, and start thinking about figuring out a lock for my 'coax feed' window.

This sounds like a scenario where remote-mounted control heads would assist. Set them up with Velcro or quick releases, pop the faces off when you go in. There's still the antenna issue, but it's less of a "STEAL ME".

 

kc4 one suggestion is also to take pictures of the radios and the serial number on it so that way you have proof.. and if you don't plan on selling it ever at all maybe carve your name into the radio or if you want to sell it you can like carve a symbol in it or something like that.

KF6 mind giving us a update? good luck and 73

 

One thing to prevent theft of a car/truck (esp if it's paid off or you do not care about resale), that I've not seen mentioned is a kill switch. On older cars it was very simple. Fords for example, all you had to do was cut into the line from the starter to the starter relay (about 8 inches from the battery). IIRC, there was a power wire to the starter and a signal wire of sorts. Wire a toggle switch under the dash that kills the signal wire. Flip the switch off when you come home at night and most thieves won't figure it out. Remember, car theft is usually a crime of opportunity. If you car is too much of a PITA to steal, they will move on down the street to an easier target.

I've also heard of a guy who had a jeep (with a soft top) getting some old ammo boxes and bolting them to the floor. One was the perfect size to look like a center console (after he cleaned it up). When people look in the jeep, it doesn't look like anything of value is in the jeep.

I completely feel your pain tho. My car was broken into about 2 weeks back. They didn't steal my car, but got all of my paperwork (registration & proof of insurance), and a cheap fake ring I bought my girlfriend as a gag christmas gift. I hope the dummy tries to pawn it thinking it's worth alot of money.

 

After reading this, i finished my stealth install of my byonics aprs microtraker....

and bought new buck shot for my 12 guage ....

 

One thing that works really good and will have them pulling their hair out is to put a switch in line with the fuel pump and mount it under the truck or some place hidden inside.

If your truck has a mechanical fuel pump put a in-line fuel solenoid and hook that to a hidden switch under the truck. They will get it started but the fuel in the bowl of the carb won't get them down the street.

Nothing is theft proof but if you harden the target they won't waste their time when there are plenty of soft target vehicles.



FOG

 

Tri Bander

There's one on FLebay right now. Looks like it's in San Diego. Probably not yours unless yours had a charger and a manual with it.
item number 290203059534
Good luck
Pat K7NYS